National Savings and Investment (NS&I), the government-backed savings bank that oversees premium bonds, has increased the interest rate on its Direct ISA by 0.25 percentage points, to 2.40% AER, writes Bethany Garner. With its 9% interest rate, Saffron beats out the former market leader for regular saver accounts, First Direct, by 2%. Interest is calculated daily and paid when the account matures after 12 months. Withdrawals are not permitted, but savers can close the account any time – although this means sacrificing the interest earned so far. While climbing rates is welcome news for savers, providers have come under fire for failing to pass on full rate rises to savers (see story below). Lloyds Bank has increased the returns on its fixed rate products by up to 0.50%.
Research from data provider Defaqto shows, with rates on cash the highest they have been for 10 years, it’s much easier for savers to breach the Personal Savings Allowance threshold. “That’s why, to start the new tax year, we’re launching two fixed-rate ISAs offering some of the most competitive rates currently available on the market. Two limited access accounts – the Limited Access Saver and eSavings Plus accounts – will see interest rates increase by 0.35%, from 1.40% to 1.75% AER. Rates are set to rise by as much as 0.35% across Nationwide’s variable rate accounts.
November: Deal Available With Linked Current Account
At many multimarket online brokers, your order does not go to the exchange – instead it’s passed on to a market maker, which may be another part of the same firm or may be a third party. Direct market access (DMA) is a way of placing trades directly onto the order books of exchanges. DMA offers greater visibility of the market, while IG’s L2 Dealer technology aggregates prices from multiple exchanges.
Shawbrook Bank announced the launch of four fixed rate cash ISAs today (Friday 23 June) with its one-year fixed rate ISA paying a market-leading 4.82% AER (fixed). Elsewhere, Saffron Building Society recently launched a market-leading regular saver, available exclusively to members who have held an account with the provider for at least 12 months. The standard rate paid on any portion of the balance above £50,000 is also increasing, from 1.35% to 1.75% AER (variable). When savers have not made a withdrawal in the current month, the bonus rate on this portion of the balance will continue to be 2.30% AER. HSBC has announced it will raise rates by up to 0.40% across a number of savings accounts from tomorrow (30 June).
How to start trading with direct market access
Faced with rising living costs, 25% of respondents described their financial circumstances as ‘unstable’, while a further 41% said meeting basic living costs was their top financial priority for the next 12 months. Interest on the account is calculated daily and added to the balance either monthly or annually. Savers can make as many withdrawals as they like from the online-only account without notice or penalty, in return for a minimum withdrawal amount of £500. Although the offer has now been withdrawn, NatWest also ran a £200 switch incentive for much of 2023, which may explain why more consumers switched to NatWest between April and June than any other provider.
No further deposits or withdrawals are permitted until the end of the three-year term. The sixth iteration of the bond pays interest 3.95% AER a year fixed for three years. The society’s FlexOne Saver is available to Prime Cloud Safety Companies children aged between 11 and 17, who hold a FlexOne current account. This means the new prize fund rate – the effective rate of return on Premium Bonds – will reduce by 0.25 percentage points from 4.65% to 4.40%.
What is Direct Market Access (DMA)?
If you want to execute straight away, they give you a quote from a market maker. If you put in a limit order to be executed if the share passes a certain price, it goes into their systems and is executed by them through a market maker if the limit price is reached. If one trader places an order to buy and another to sell at the same price, then the order book will match the two and a trade will take place. Alternatively, if someone places a order to buy or sell at the market price – rather than specifying a fixed price – they will be matched with the best price available in the order book.
The Financial Conduct Authority, the market regulator, has also expressed concerns about low rates on offer to savers, threatening interventions if the situation does not improve. The bank’s two, three and five-year fixed rate ISAs pay competitive 4.93%, 4.82% and 4.65% respectively. The Members’ Month Loyalty Saver pays 9% AER (fixed), and allows savers to pay in up to £50 each month for a year. Lloyds Bank is rewarding existing customers with exclusive cash ISA rates, writes Bethany Garner. According to the latest Bank of England figures, UK households withdrew £4.6 billion (net) from banks and building societies in May.
Understanding DMA CFDs
The rising rates have been driven largely by 13 successive bank rate hikes, which many providers have passed along, at least in part, to savers. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the financial regulator, will take action against banks and building societies that fail to pass on adequate Bank Rate rises to savers, writes Bethany Garner. Its Cash ISA and Online Savings Account will now pay 4.30% AER (variable), up from 4.00%. This includes a bonus rate of 0.34 percentage points (gross), which expires after 12 months.
- Hence, the owner of direct market access simply needs to pay an execution fee to send the trade order to the market.
- In this sense, the trading platform is the middle man, as it has access to exchanges and collates the best prices, and the software places orders on your behalf.
- The bank also found that savers tended to withdraw relatively small amounts, with 25% of customers taking out £80 or less.
- First Direct is doubling the interest rate on its cash ISA from 0.70% to 1.40% AER (variable) on 20 October, writes Bethany Garner.
- Savers can purchase bonds until 28 February 2023 – no further investments are allowed beyond this date.
The number of larger prizes will also fall however with six fewer £100,000 prizes, and eight fewer £50,000 prizes. National Savings and Investments (NS&I), the government-backed savings bank, is pulling £31 million from the Premium Bonds prize fund, with effect from its March draw, writes Bethany Garner. Savers stashed a total of £70 million in Yorkshire’s Christmas Regular Saver 2023, which paid a lower rate of 4.50% (variable). Individuals who have received a switching offer from Co-operative Bank since 1 November 2022 are not eligible. Customers who have received a switching offer from TSB since October 2022 are not eligible.
Foreign exchange direct market access
Many sell-side firms now provide services for direct market access to their clients. Direct market access (DMA) refers to a method of electronic trading where investors can execute trades by directly interacting with an electronic order book. An order book is a list of orders that records the orders that buyers and sellers place in the stock exchange. The orders remain in the book until they are fulfilled by matching the price that a buyer wants to pay to purchase a security with the price that a seller wants to sell the security. The logical conclusion to this, enabling investors to work their own orders directly on the order book without recourse to market makers, was first facilitated by electronic communication networks such as Instinet. Recognising the threat to their own businesses, investment banks began acquiring these companies (e.g. the purchase of Instinet in 2007 by Nomura Holdings)[2] and developing their own DMA technologies.
Halifax is the latest bank to offer new current account customers a generous cash incentive when they switch, writes Bethany Garner. NS&I is also raising rates across its two, three, and five-year fixed rate products, which are only available to existing customers whose product is about to mature. First Direct, Lloyds Bank and TSB are also currently offering cash incentives to new customers switching current accounts.
May: Top NS&I Rate Almost Double Latest Inflation Figure
The instant access account can be opened online, and allows savers to make unlimited deposits and withdrawals without notice. Interest on the account is calculated daily, and can be paid either monthly or annually. Over 3 million savings accounts were liable for tax on earned interest in April 2023 – a 13-fold increase compared with the same month in 2022 – thanks to improved rates, writes Bethany Garner. The regulator will also review easy access savings rates every six months, and publish a ranking that lists providers from the highest to the lowest rates. When top easy access rates were closer to 1%, a basic rate taxpayer could deposit around £100,000 without being liable for tax, with the sum standing at around £50,000 for higher rate taxpayers.
May: Nationwide, Santander, TSB, Virgin Called To Account
The Direct Saver account can be opened with a minimum deposit of £1 with an upper limit of £2 million, while the Income Bond has a minimum investment of £500 and a maximum of £1 million. Sarah Coles at Hargreaves Lansdown says NS&I’s decision to double the green bond’s interest rate is “a dramatic step that shows the old rate was a real disappointment”. Figures from its Savings & Resilience Barometer, a financial measure put together with consultants Oxford Economics, showed a wide regional disparity in UK savings habits at the start of 2022.
